Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

Rolling Stone

By Patrick Doyle

Sep 13, 2010 2:17 PM EDT

After a six-year hiatus, A Perfect Circle will reconvene in November for a West Coast theater tour. The long-awaited shows feature a surprise for hardcore fans: the band will play all three of their albums in their entirety in each city. “We’re going to do three nights in each city,” frontman Maynard James Keenan tells Rolling Stone. “We’re going to do Mer de Noms the first night, Thirteenth Step the second, and eMOTIVe the third night.”<’p>
Keenan says the band chose theaters because they aren’t counting on fans to return after a lengthy wait. “There’s no way we’re going to sell out arenas,” he says. “We haven’t been around for six years. We have to start over … These shows are going to be very small intimate theater gigs, basically just the five of us [in the band] trying to connect with each other.”
Keenan formed the band in 1999 with Billy Howerdel, a former roommate and Tool guitar tech, who co-wrote Mer de Noms, a Top Ten album, with him. After releasing the covers disc eMOTIVe in 2004, Keenan shifted his focus to his original band, Tool, and a new project, Puscifer. Howerdel, meanwhile, formed Ashes Divide. “I would’ve personally loved to have a new A Perfect Circle record come out every 24 months since we started,” says Howerdel. “But it’s not the nature of the way this thing was set up to begin with.”
A Perfect Circle’s 2010 lineup will feature Keenan, Howerdel, drummer Josh Freese, former Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha and bassist Matt McJunkins. Keenan says the live performances won’t necessarily be faithful to the band’s albums. “I don’t see how they could be,” he says. “When you add the different people in the mix, it should sound different.”
Keenan says he’s inviting former bandmates –— bassists Paz Lenchantin and Jeordie White along with guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen — to stop by the shows: “I think some of the shows, depending on timing and depending on scheduling, we’ll have Paz and Troy and Jeordie pop down for a song or two.” Keenan and Howerdel both tell RS that they are working on new material, trading ideas over e-mail. The writing “never really stopped,” says Keenan. “We always had music bouncing back and forth, but [this] just seemed like the right time” to regroup.
Without a record label overseeing APC, Keenan says “it’s kind of a good time to take what I’ve learned with Puscifer as far as being independent – do a few songs at a time, build it slowly — possibly — back up to where it was. The hard part is not falling back into the old pattern of how we used to approach it.” “The clock is ticking,” Howerdel adds, “and we have intentions of playing a new song or two at these shows.”
Keenan hopes the band will continue touring after November. “Maybe not in this format,” he says. “It might be more like a regular several week tour, instead of it being the multiple-night album shows.”
The two have several other projects lined up. Howerdel hopes to record another Ashes Divide album soon, and Keenan is working on a DVD set for Puscifer: Season One, a DVD he describes as an Adult Swim-style series with “some studio [footage], some live, some animation all kind of mixed together.”
Tool fans: don’t expect a follow-up to 2006’s 10,000 Days any time soon. Keenan says he’s been too busy at his Arizona winery to give his other band much thought. “It’s kind of hard to consider any of that stuff when you’re combating the weather, pests, roadies and hippies,” he says.

Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

God, I hope there is GA on the floor. I'm totally listening to Thirtenth Step right now. It's going to be amazing. I'm more amped for this than anything all year. They were so fucking good last time I saw them.

Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

Originally Posted by Mr. Fuzz

God, I hope there is GA on the floor. I'm totally listening to Thirtenth Step right now. It's going to be amazing. I'm more amped for this than anything all year. They were so fucking good last time I saw them.

Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

Depending on price and day of the show, I am pretty sure I am going to see Thirteenth Step in Seattle.

Originally Posted by bmack86

And it's been long established that Chris hates fun.

Originally Posted by Hatinisbad

I took my niece this year and it was her first Coachella. It was so fun to see it through her eyes. She thought it felt like a magical scene from Shreck. The one where all the fairy tale creatures meet for the first time in Shreck's swamp.

I took my niece this year and it was her first Coachella. It was so fun to see it through her eyes. She thought it felt like a magical scene from Shreck. The one where all the fairy tale creatures meet for the first time in Shreck's swamp.

Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

Holy shit... I'm almost tempted to just do the three day pass to The Avalon since I'm sure it's going to be easier to get than trying to get tickets for individual nights. I'm so torn between Mer De Noms and the Thirteenth Step though.

Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

Originally Posted by rage patton

Faith No More presale Wednesday 10am.

gonna suck, but do-able. probably go for FNM first, then APC...

Originally Posted by darksideofkaos.

Holy shit... I'm almost tempted to just do the three day pass to The Avalon since I'm sure it's going to be easier to get than trying to get tickets for individual nights. I'm so torn between Mer De Noms and the Thirteenth Step though.

Re: A Perfect Circle has returned!

dates arent suposed to be out yet. but they confirmed them over a month ago. or at least ive known seattles for a month. and josh let me know if you end up coming down. im probably gonna try and hit mer de noms and 13th step. if not all 3. i loved this band back in the day.

on a side note, is anyone else a little irritated they could get someone cooler to play bass?

"the band will play all three of their albums in their entirety in each city. “We’re going to do three nights in each city,” frontman Maynard James Keenan tells Rolling Stone. “We’re going to do Mer de Noms the first night, Thirteenth Step the second, and eMOTIVe the third night.”"